Hybrid scientific community bridges the divide

A Brunel University - Engineering and Design product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 24, 2004

Growing links between business and academia are leading to the emergence of a commercially aware, entrepreneurial "hybrid scientific community", with scientists straddling both sectors.

Growing links between business and academia are leading to the emergence of a commercially aware, entrepreneurial "hybrid scientific community", with scientists straddling both sectors, according to Brunel University.

As awareness of the value of academic research grows, companies are paring back internal R and D functions, replacing them with strategic research partnerships with universities.

The highly fluid "extended internal labour markets" that have emerged are leading to leaner, more productive R and D programmes and transforming the career prospects of research scientists on both sides of the divide.

According to Alice Lam, Professor of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour at Brunel School of Business and Management, large high-tech firms have sought to break away from the organisational and professional constraints of internal R and D by harnessing university-based research talent.

Particularly common in IT and pharmaceutical businesses, this increasingly widespread, collaborative approach to research projects is providing businesses with privileged access to academics' ideas and global knowledge networks for the first time.

As a result, companies are developing organisational frameworks that enable them to pursue research projects with highly commercial applications.

The extended internal labour markets described by Professor Lam enable businesses to support this activity by tapping into their partner universities' incentive and career systems.

Therefore they can identify and harness the expertise they need, and help scientists develop hybrid business/academic careers which are both lucrative and highly stimulating.

Professor Lam explains: "Our research highlights how the mutual suspicion which prevailed between businesses and universities for decades has given way to a more constructive relationship".

"Most interestingly, the emergence of extended internal labour markets suggests that more and more businesses are taking a leaf from universities in how to manage research projects".

"Whereas many in-house R and D departments were highly managed, centralised and bureaucratic, a laisser-faire attitude more common to academia has prevailed".

"As a result, a new 'super class' of highly commercially aware research scientists is emerging: these personalities are likely to have a massive impact on the businesses and research establishments of the future".

The research bodes well for UK business and entrepreneurship, which has suffered from poor productivity and under-resourced research and development in the past.

The 2003 Lambert Review of business-university collaboration highlighted the considerable economic benefit that academic research, correctly harnessed, can provide to businesses.

Professor Lam's research indicates that business is beginning to put the review's recommendations into action, working constructively to resolve intellectual property issues and building HR ties with universities, minimising the barriers to collaboration.

Keith Robson, Enterprise Director at Brunel University, agrees: "In the past 12 months, we've seen a great change in the level of commercial involvement in our research activities".

"The business community is finally waking up to the fact that universities can act as highly effective research facilities: not only do they have the management systems in place to get the best out of researchers, academics themselves also offer considerable economies of scale as they tap into global knowledge networks".

"From the academics' perspective, the commercial insights developed over the course of these engagements can bear fruit for the length of their career".